Why we are not being informed of preaching achievements of Radhanatha Maharaja!?

About the source: Bhakti Charu Swami

Bhakti Charu Swami is from a Bengali family and spent most of his early childhood in urban Kolkata. He met with Srila Prabhupada at the end of 1976 after a long and intense search for a spiritual teacher. This initial meeting resulted in Bhakti Charu Swami being assigned to translate the books of the Bhaktivedanta Book Trust into the Bengali language. He was immediately made responsible as the secretary for Indian affairs and within a few months, Srila Prabhupada gave him initiation. Soon thereafter, Srila Prabhupada awarded Bhakti Charu Swami the order of sannyasa. In addition to his official responsibilities, Bhakti Charu Swami continued to translate all of Srila Prabhupada’s works, more than fifty volumes, into Bengali. Bhakti Charu Swami is an initiating spiritual master in ISKCON and has disciples all over the world.

Please accept my humble obeisances. All glories to Srila Prabhupada. Yesterday I arrived in New York from Europe. A disciple of mine who came to receive me in the airport, an IT specialist from New Jersey, informed me about his attending a very wonderful program where Radhanath Maharaja addressed about 300 doctors. In his presentation Maharaja admitted the efficacy of allopathic treatment and at the same time spoke about the profundity of Ayurveda. And he urged the doctors to take advantage of both. Very joyfully this devotee informed me about the success of this program and how practically every participant became enlivened by it.

He also told me about various other programs that Radhanath Maharaja conducted in the recent past in America – addressing the software tycoons in Silicon Valley; addressing the top executives of google, HSBC and Ernst and Young; speaking to highly successful individuals from various fields.

I began to wonder why we are not being informed of these achievements of Radhanatha Maharaja. May be Radhanath Maharaj, due to his very humble disposition, does not want his achievements to be broadcasted, but for the benefit of our devotees and overall inspiration of our entire society, it should be properly broadcasted and appreciated. I know for certain if Srila Prabhupada were here at this time, he would have been so happy to hear about these achievements. In this respect I have seen how expert Tamala Krishna Maharaja was. Whenever something remarkable happened he would immediately report to Srila Prabhupada and Srila Prabhupada would be so pleased. I remember how Tamala Krishna Maharaja used to read out the letters of Bhakti Tirtha Maharaja and how eagerly Srila Prabhupada used to wait for them.

Once in Vrindavan, Srila Prabhupada told me how envious his godbrothers became about his success. Then Srila Prabhupada mentioned that this tendency is naturally there because the god-brothers tend to see each other almost on the same level. Therefore if one god-brother becomes very successful in preaching or achieves something wonderful then it becomes difficult for them to acknowledge that. However Srila Prabhupada also pointed out that the Vaishnavas are different. They love to sing the glories of other Vaishnavas. They can do that because they are non envious. – “nirmatsara.”

We all know how much Srila Prabhupada wanted us to function in a spirit of unity. He often mentioned about unity in diversity. We know that in an institution like ISKCON so many devotees with their diverse nature and characteristics have to function together. Therefore this unity in diversity is the only way to work together for the benefit of our preaching mission.

The other day a devotee in a class asked me what this “unity in diversity” actually meant. I gave the example of a football team. Different players are playing their respective roles – some are defending the ball from entering their goal and some others are aggressively trying to put the ball in the opponent’s goal. All the members of the team are playing differently but they are united as one team. In the game when someone scores the goal, he gets the credit. Everyone cheers his achievements but the entire team enjoys the glory of victory.

It is important that In ISKCON we also function in that way. When someone achieves success in his preaching mission and the world recognizes and appreciates that then let us also consider that to be our victory and rejoice. Those who are good at scoring goals, let us give them all the support to lead us into victory. I am confident that if we can successfully do that then our mission will spread in leaps and bounds all over the world.